A renderer is a software program or hardware device responsible
for selecting the color of each pixel in a frame. Often these
frames are shown in rapid succession to create an animation.

A 3D renderer takes as input a description of geometric primitives
(often polygons) along with a the coordinates and viewing
direction of a virtual camera, all of which are given in 3D
"xyz" coordinates.

3D renderers can roughly be divided into two categories:
photorealistic and real-time. RenderDotC falls into the
photorealistic category.

The primary goal of photorealistic renderers is to generate
images so convincing that they could be mistaken for photographs.
They do so by capturing many details of real world photography
(accurate lighting, shadows, textures, blurs, etc.) while
avoiding the telltale signs of computer generated imagery
(jaggies, aliasing, and other artifacts).

Real-time renderers, on the other hand, prioritize the speedy
generation of images so that animations can be achieved right
before the user's eyes. This usually involves the assistance
of specialized graphics hardware.

While claims have been made that certain renderers can create
photorealistic imagery in real-time, the fact is that a large
margin still exists between the complexity of scenes rendered
for films and what today's real-time renderers can handle.
Projections indicate that this will continue to be the case
for at least 20 years.